10 Awful WWE Clichés That Refuse To Go Away
9. "RKO Outta Nowhere!"
WWE have developed an unfortunate habit of taking anything with the slightest hint of pop culture relevance and running it into the ground. Nothing illustrates this better than the “RKO Outta Nowhere!” meme that took-off through Vine in 2014, and saw Randy Orton RKO’ing footballers, giraffes, sharks, and every other living creature (or inanimate object) imaginable.
They were great for a little while, but just like every other meme, the RKO Vines faced a sharp drop-off after going viral. The internet had all but forgotten about them and moved onto the next big thing a few weeks later, but not WWE.
Vince McMahon quickly latched onto the trend. Suddenly, every single RKO came “outta nowhere,” and whenever Orton is wrestling, you can bet your house on those words coming out of Michael Cole’s mouth. Regardless of whether the RKO comes as a surprise or not, it’s never not “outta nowhere,” even today - two years after the meme’s peak.
The RKO is a tremendous move, and Orton’s ability to hit it from seemingly impossible positions is a huge part of his popularity. Sadly, WWE have done their absolute best to run it into the ground since 2014.